LIVE CHAT 3/12/15: A NewAccess coach's perspective on social anxiety

[Chris_B]

Hi everyone,

Our next live chat will be here on Thursday 3 December, 1-2pm with Martin Tedeschi, one of beyondblue’s NewAccess coaches.

NewAccess is a person-centred, low stigma, free early intervention program for people who experience mild to moderate depression and anxiety. Currently the program is being piloted in three trial sites - ACT, North Coast NSW and Adelaide - for anyone over the age of eighteen.

Martin spent nearly 15 years as a structural landscaper, and he owned and operated a small business as a structural landscape contractor for 10 of those years. He moved to North Coast NSW and is now living in Coffs Harbour. Martin’s interest and dedication to the mental health area began when he gained his Bachelor of Psychology with Honours, followed by two years working with Lifeline. He joined NewAccess at the beginning of the program in January 2013 after completing his coaching training through Flinders University.

Our live chat will be focussed on strategies to manage social anxiety, a commonly discussed topic here on our forums.

PLEASE NOTE: Martin won't be able to answer questions about highly severe levels of anxiety and depression. If you are seeking this kind of support please contact our Support Service.

So bookmark this thread, get your questions ready, and we'll see you back here on Thursday afternoon when this thread will be unlocked and Martin will be here to chat.

(For those interested in further information about how NewAccess works, one of our forum members Daisee has a thread about her experiences using the program here.)

[Martin_T]

We'll explore: what is the setback? What's blocking you from achieving your goals? 

For example: one guy I was seeing couldn't be in a public place by himself. His goal was to go to a major expo event. We were using exposure therapy, which is like steps on a ladder, taking gradual steps toward doing the thing that makes you anxious. 

We set an initial goal of going to a cafe by himself. He tried that, but wasn't able to do it at first, he got panicked and had to leave.  So we reset the goal to be, sit in a park across the road from the cafe. He was able to do this smaller step, and then move onto going to the cafe. Then the next step up was to go to a busy food court in a shopping mall.

The important thing is to attempt to do something about it and not be too hard on yourself if you can't make the goal first time. If you don't attempt it, then nothing will change. You need to be congratulated for making a change.

[geoff]

hi Martin, yes that's OK, I was just interested to know how you felt about OCD, as there are many people on this site who do have this illness and their condition varies so much, but what I do find is that people post about having this illness only post once or maybe twice, and then disappear, but I'm not sure that they realise  OCD is caused by anxiety, and whether this is the fear of being in social occasions or a phobia it's difficult to determine, maybe it could be both, because I'd had OCD for 56 years and both apply with me.

My concern is why they only post once and then go, it is because of social media anxiety, I'm not sure what to call it, so is this possible, Geoff.

[Chris_B]

What sorts of people come to see you? Is there a particular age group?

[Martin_T]

Over the last couple of years, I have had young men from the ages of 18-23, it's hit them in their late teens. I've also had a lot of older men who start to develop social anxiety after they've finished work, moving into retirement. People at transition points, like school to university, not knowing where they fit in the world.  For older people, it can be a feeling of losing their identity by not working any longer. 

[Martin_T]

Hi Geoff, for somebody who is fearful of social occasions, we would do something called a behavioural experiment. We would look at the thoughts that is going through someone's head that makes them fearful at a social occasion like a BBQ. They might think, I'm afraid because no-one is going to speak to me. They might be thinking, no one will want to speak to me because I'm boring, I have nothing to contribute.

We then rate that thought: how much do I believe this is true, out of 100. They might come back and say, I 100 percent believe that's true.

Then we look at the alternative thinking to that: I might find at least one person to talk to. And then we ask them to rate the likelihood of those, and they might say, 10 per cent.

So if it's 10 per cent likely that I might find at least one person to talk to, then is it really 100 per cent likely that no one will talk to me?  

The next part is to design an experiment. Be specific as possible: I will go to the BBQ at 6pm. I will try and make conversation with at least 3 people. I will stay at the BBQ for 2 hours.

So next session we'll review your predictions vs what actually happened. It's about challenging thoughts and behaviours one bit at a time, and looking at what you learned from the experience. 

[Chris_B]

What happens if the experiment fails? How do you work through that?

[Martin_T]

We'll investigate and walk through step by step what actually happened. For example: you might have gone to the BBQ and talked to someone, but you had a dozen beers as well. Drinking might be a "safety behaviour" for you, something that you do to protect yourself from the anxiety, but it's actually reinforcing the anxiety and helping you confirm your unhelpful beliefs. So we identify problem behaviours like that you may need to change in order to work toward your goal.

[Chris_B]

Thanks Martin for chatting today. For those reading, if you're interested in accessing some of the techniques used in NewAccess and you're outside of the catchment areas of the program, then have a look at the online Mindspot program which uses similar techniques.